Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-10-19

understand all the process by which mel
; get into the dark. / knoY them all. have
travelled with burning feet that bfisterec
way. The first word that children learn +
utter is generally papa or mamma. | think
the first word ever uttered was "Why?''
| know what it is to have hundred mid.
nights pour their darkness into one hour.
such men are not to be scoffed at but help
ed. Turn your back upon a drowning maU
when you have the rope with which to pull
him ashore, and let that woman the third
story of house perish in the flames when
you have ladder with which to help her
out and help her down, rather than turn
your back scoflugly on a sceptfc whose soul
is in more peril than the bodies of those
/ other endangered ones possibly can be. oh,
lskepticism is dark land. There are men
in this house who would give thousand
worlds if they possessed them, to get back
10 the placid faith OF their fathers and
mothers, and it is our place to help them.
and we may help them, never through their
heads, but always through their hearts.
These skeptics, when brought to Jesus, will
be nightly affected, tar more so than those
| who never examined the evidence of Chris
tianity. Thomas Chalmers was once skep-
| tic, Robert Hall skeptic, Robert Newton
a skeptic, Christmas Evans q skeptic. But
when once with strong hand they took
hold of the chariot ofthe gospel, they rolled
| it on with what momentum! II address
such men and women to-day, throw out
no scoff. l implead them by the memory
of the good old days when at their mothers
knee they said: ''Now lay me down to
Sleep" and by those days and nights of
scarlet fever in which she watched you, Civ.
ing you the medicine at just the right time,
and turning your pillow when it was hot,
and with hands that many years ago turned
to dust, soothed away your pain, and with
voice that you will never hear again, unless
you join her in the better country, told you
to never mind for you would feel better by
and by, and by that dying couch where she
looked so pale and talked so slowly, catch
ing her breath between the words, and you
felt an awful loneliness coming over your
soul; by all that, beg you to come back
and take the same religion. 1t was good
enough for her. 1t is good enough for you.
Nay, l have better plea than that. plead
by all the wounds, aud tears. and blood, and
groans, and agonies, and death -throes of
the Son of God, who approaches you this
moment with torn brow, and lacerated
hand, and whipped back, and saying:
"Come unto me, all We who are weary end
heavy laden, and will give you rest"
Again, there is a field of usefulness but
little touch or occupied by those who are
astray in their habits. All northern nations,
like those of North America, and England
and Scotland, that is, in the colder climates,
are devastated by alcoholism. They take
the fire to keep up the warmth. In south
ern countries, like Arabia and Spain, the
blood is so they are not tempted to fiery liq-
uids. The great Roman armies never
drank anything stronger than water tinged
with vinegar, but under our northern eli
mate the temptation to heating stimulants
is most mighty, and millions succumb.
When mans habits go wrong, the church
drops him, the social circle drops him, good
influences drop him, we ali drop him. OIL
all the men who get Oft the track, but few
ever get ON again Near my summer resi-
dence there is a life-saving station on the
beach. There are all the ropes and rockets,
the boats. the machinery for getting people
off shIpwrecks. Summer before last saw
there fifteeu or twenty men who were
breakfasting, after having just escaped
with their lives and nothing more. Up and
down our coasts are built these useful
structures, and the mariners know it, aud
they feel that if they are driven into the
breakers there will be apt from shore to
to be so many lfe-saving stations, not so
much to help those who are in smooth wa
ters but those who have been shipwrecked.
Come, let us run out the life boats! And
who will man them? We do not preach
enough to such men, we have not enough
faith in their release. Alas, if when they
come to hear us, we a"e laboriously trying
to show the difference between Sublap-
sarianism and Supralapsarianism, while
they have thousand vipers of remorse and
despair coiling around and biting their i'm
mortal spirits The church is not chiefly
for goodish sort of men whose proclpites
are all right, and who could get to heaven
praying and singing in their own homes.
1t is on the beach to help the drowning
Those bad cases are the cases that God
likes to take hold of. He can save big
sinner as we'll as a small sinner, and when
a man calls earnestly to God for help he will
go out to deliver snch one. If it were
necessary God would come down from the
sky, followed by all the artillery Of heaven
aud a million angels with drawn swords.
Get one hundred such redeemed men in
each of your churches, and nothing could |
stand before them, for such men are gener-
ally warm hearted and enthusiastic. No
formal prayers then. No heartless singing |
then. No cold conventonalisms then.
Furthermore. the destitute children cf the |
street offer field of work comparatively |
unoccupied. The uncared for children are |
in the mai ,r,ty in Brooklyn and most of our |
cities. When they grow up, if unreformed, |
they will outvote your children. and they |
will govern your children The whiskey |
ring will hatch out other whiskey rings, and |
will kill with their horrid stencil |
public sobriety, unless the Church of God |
rises up with outstretched arms and enfolds |
this dying population in her bosom. Public |
schools cannot do it. Art galleries cannot |
do It, Blackwell's Island cannot do it. Aims |
houses cannot do it. New York Tembs and |
Raymond street Jail cannot do it. Sing |
Sing cannot do it. Church of God, wake |
up to your magnificent nissioni You can |
do it. Get somewhere. somehow to work. |
The Prussian cavalry mount by putting |
their right foot into the stirrup, while the |
American cavalry mount by putting their |
left foot into the stirrup l don't care how |
you mount your war charger, if you only |
get into this battle for God, and get there |
soon, right stirrup. or left stirrup, or no STIR
rup az all The unoccupied fields are all |
around US, and why should we build on an /
other mans foundation? That God has |
called this church to especial work no one
can doubt. Its history has been miraculous.
God has helped US at every step, and though |
the wheels of its history have made many
revolutions, they have all been forward and |
never backward; and now, with our borders
enlarged and with important reinforce
ments. we start on a new campaign. At
Sharon Springs, nineteen years ago, walking
in the park, asked God if he had any par
ticular work for me to do, to make it plain
and would do 1T. He revealed to me the |
style of church We were to have, and He re-
vealed to me the architecture, and He re-
vealed to me the modes of worship, and He
revealed to me my work, and, as far as in
my ignorance and weakness have seen the |
right way, have tried to walk in it. We
decided that we wanted it soul-saving |
church, and it has been almost q constant |
outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Ye powers
OF darkness, ye devils in hell, we mean to |
snatch from your dominion other multi |
uudes; if God will help us. have heard of
what was called the ''thundering legion"
1t was in 17a, part of the Roman army to |
which some Christians belonged, and their |